Call for papers: Voluntary Sector Studies Network (VSSN) Day Conference, 19th May 2020
This event has now been postponed hopefully to the date of the usual autumn event in November. Please look out for further developments.
Volunteering in Health and Social Care: making a difference in a complex landscape of rising demand.
VSSN’s next day conference will take place on 19th May 2020, hosted by the Institute for Volunteering Research at University of East Anglia in Norwich. We will explore volunteering in health and social care, considering the opportunities and challenges encountered in a complex landscape of rising demand and the difference volunteering makes in this context.
Pressures are growing on volunteer-involving organisations, locally-based community organisations and social enterprises to respond to increasing and diverse demands for volunteers to provide health and social care services. These range from national newspaper campaigns to recruit large numbers of new volunteers for a variety of new tasks and settings, to the current drive for social prescribing and increased community involvement.
This day conference specifically aims to explore:
- the current context of volunteering in health and social care,
- the current policy drivers
- new and innovative approaches now being promoted to deal with demand,
- what difference volunteering makes to health and social care, volunteers, volunteer involving organisations and wider society.
Abstracts
We welcome contributions from researchers, academics, doctoral students and practitioners from a broad range of fields around innovative initiatives taking place in different communities, and critical theoretical debates on what is happening to voluntary and community sector innovation and enterprise in the current period.
We will be pleased to consider proposals on related topics which may include (but are not limited to) organisations working with diverse groups in the population, for example refugee groups, those facing inequalities due to geography, black and minority ethnic led, women’s and faith-based groups.
Your abstract should outline your proposed paper, showing how the issues you raise will contribute to the themes for the day.
Abstracts of 250-300 words should be sent to: j.grotz@uea.ac.uk by March 13th 2020.
Please also attach contact details.
If helpful, please contact Jurgen Grotz j.grotz@uea.ac.uk to discuss contributions informally in the meantime.
We are also happy to accept poster proposals, if you wish to submit a poster please contact Jurgen on the email address above.
Attending the event
VSSN aims to promote an understanding of the UK voluntary sector through research. The event is aimed at researchers, academics, doctoral students and practitioners in voluntary organisations or foundations interested in the UK voluntary sector. We also welcome policymakers and practitioners engaged in relevant fields. We are always pleased to meet and receive contributions from colleagues in similar settings in other countries. The working language is English.
Bookings will open shortly and the normal costs for day seminars will apply: £35 for members, £70 for non members and £25 for non members without institutional support.
We look forward to welcoming you at the University of East Anglia on May 19th 2020.
